With only a sliver of the San Joaquin County votes cast counted as of 12:01 a.m. today , challenger Ron Freitas had accumulated 7,722 votes (52.679 percent) to take an early lead over incumbent District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar with 6,637 votes (47.21 percent).

Verber Salazar is seeking her third four-year term.

Whoever garners the most votes once ballots cast Tuesday are counted will be elected as San Joaquin County’s district attorney outright given there are only two hopefuls.

That won’t be the case for the new 9th District Congressional seat that covers all of San Joaquin County except for Lathrop and the rural area south of Manteca and east of Tracy.

That’s because with eight candidates the top two vote getters will face each other in a run-off in November.

Josh Harder was leading with 6,017 votes (41.07 percent) against 3,778 for Tom Patti (25.79 percent). In third was Jim Shoemaker with 1,848 votes for 12.61 percent of those counted as of 12:01 a.m.

Harder, the incumbent 10th District Congressman who moved to Tracy to run in the new district, along with Patti who serves on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors, are expected to be the two top vote-getters.

As of 12:01 a.m., only 6,418 ballots had been counted. There are 385,050 registered voters in the county who were eligible to vote on Tuesday.

Associated Press Tuesday projected that Democrat Mike Barkley — a Manteca resident — will advance to the November run-off for the 5th District in Congress that includes all of Amador, Calaveras, Tuolumne, Mariposa, and parts of El Dorado. He will take on Republican Tom McClintock.

McClintock currently is serving in Congress but in another district.